This invention relates to a mechanical oscillator formed by a network of basic oscillators.
This network of basic mechanical oscillators has couplings suitable for propagating a signal or a disturbance from an initial position to other places in the network. The fields in which the spatial or temporal changes of signals and their phase is exploited are non-linear or chaotic systems, data coding or decoding, disturbance propagation analysis systems, neural networks, systems for interpreting boundary conditions by generation of representative stationary states, networks enabling the amplification and analysis of instationary disturbance variables, and networks sensitive to a physical disturbance variable such as a variation in pressure, acceleration or the like. The oscillator network can be constructed by deposition and etching techniques used in micromechanics.
A plurality of mechanical oscillator networks paired together have been proposed in the prior art documents, although there appear to have been few concrete productions. In the document “Surface micromachine segmented mirrors for adaptive optics” (Cowan W. D.; Lee M. K.; Welsh, B. M. Bright, V. M.; Roggemann, M. C.; IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, Vol 5, Issue 1, January-February 1999 Page(s): 90-101), a coupling between parallel vibrating beams is produced by a connecting wire or beam. A strong or weak coupling is obtained between the vibrating beams according to the relative rigidity of this connecting device; however, it remains unchanged even though it would be desirable to be capable of regulating it in many applications, and it is not known how to extend such a coupling to a large network, especially two-dimensional, of beams. In a slightly different design, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,917,138 B2, a coupling between oscillators is produced by a deformable and elastic beam that can be modelled as a spring, of which the characteristics can be adjusted in order to define the resonance modes of the assembly. The disadvantage of the spring coupling is that the exchange of energy between the basic oscillators is excessive and the oscillators therefore cannot generally be stabilised. Other designs of the prior art have one or the other of these disadvantages, according to their constitution.
The basic oscillators comprising the network can be constructed according to the French patent no. 2 876 180 of the applicant; it is in the particular manner of associating such oscillators that the originality of the invention should be sought. The previous patent does not mention an oscillator network.
There is a need to create a network of mechanical or electromechanical oscillators coupled together, of which the structure is simple and formed by a reduced number of elements. This would result in an easy production, in particular for the usual deposition and etching techniques in micromechanical or nanomechanical microtechnology, which would yield a product with specific dimensions. It would then be possible to construct a network of oscillators of very small sizes, therefore with a high level of integration on the substrate, to have high frequencies pass through it, o the order of at least the gigahertz, without compromising the transmission of signals in the oscillator network of the invention, and with good characteristics for cutting the transmission around specific oscillation modes, and excessive energy losses. Finally, it would be possible to easily adjust the production parameters and therefore the characteristics of the network, such as the specific frequencies and the coupling characteristics, or to add specific adjusting means, integrated in the network and providing the same possibilities of adjustment once the device has been produced. The oscillators and the coupling means should be formed by a smaller number of elements in order to provide these advantages.